Monday, December 11, 2006

Hannibal Rising

Hannibal Rising, Thomas Harris' fourth novel about the egregious psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter, seems to me so far the best of the lot. I urge everybody to read this wonderful book (or listen to the audibook like me). If you don't read it, Hannibal may come and get you in the night. I shit you not.

123 comments:

I just found this blog, and there doesn't appear to be an email address, so... I'll give you my "oh, wow, I get to send something to RAW" message, and get it over with.

In October of ought-four I first came across a FNORD tag on some Revolutionary War fort ruins, then that same day spotted a "FNORD for SAVIOUR" campaign sign.

That lead me to you.

I finally read one of your books last month, Prometheus Rising: most important single thing I've read, and all I do is sit here on this computer reading shit, working on a new media B.A., and doing drugs all day. I've read a few more of your works since then. I won't shower you with praise, I'll just say "thank you."

Your existence adds great novelty to the universe.

To anyone and anything:

Someone mentioned "Goldpowder" (monatomic gold) on one of the comment threads, which I actually just heard of like three days ago. Fascinating stuff, check it out!

There have been claims this shit opens the chakras, was contained in the Ark of the Covenant, repairs DNA, appeared in the Egyptian Book of the Dead and Bible, and so on. It’s been found in Egyptian tombs. There seems to be a good chance it was what the Greek, Chinese, and Medieval alchemists were after. Now some farmer in Arizona owns the patent on it... He does live near "Phoenix" though.

Worth a look, at the very least.

Mr. RAW, best of luck, and again, thank you.

To our holy disruptive dwarf planet of the macrocosmos; divine goddess of the microcosmos: let us hail Eris.

--max terry

P.S. Anyone want to chip in (shit’s expensive) to get some monatomic "elixir of life" / "manna" as a gift for RAW (if he'd be interested, and/or hasn't already tried it)? Drop me an email: mhterry@gmail.com

Well this is another one of the 'Oh my god, Robert Anton Wilson has a blog!' comments. I just wanted to tell you that through your writing and lectures I have found Alan Watts, Timothy Leary, Buckminister Fuller, Philip K Dick (again), Ram Dass, Wavy Gravy, Larry Brilliant, Rev, Ivan Stang and, of course, JR "Bob" Dobbs. All that in about 12 months, Its been quite a year. Thanks.

PS I'll get the new Hanibal book after I finsh The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. I hadn't heard there was a new one out so thanks again :)

Above all, I've learn't to always try KNU things after reading Hannibal, since you raved on about it. I found an instinctive taste for it deep inside my soul, ummm.So, I'll pick me up this fresh slice of Hannibal and get stuck right in. Smells yummy, thanks. Ta Taa.

Your work is outstanding. Prometheus Rising was an mind expanding experience for me!!!!

I am feeling very privileged, i have the opportunity to say something to a wise man like you. I am feeling very nice, you are here,alive and kicking. Keep up writing and contributing to the improvement of mankind.

Mr. Wilson, I hope it might please you to know that you've blown the reality grids of a handful of young men and women in Minnesota. We've been inspired by your Guns and Dope project to start a Minnesotan secession campaign for the 'Northstar Republic' (founded on the day the dwarf planet Eris was named) which we haven't decided is a joke disguised as a political movement, or a political movement disguised as a joke.We hope to have your blessing, and hope to have more of your work yet.

Speaking of books-- I first read one of yours (The Illuminatus! Trilogy) while recovering in the ICU after a suicide attempt. A friend had given it to me. And while it's a great book, let me say-- it's not the best reading material for that particular situation. Please take care of yourself, and thank you for all your writings!

I feel it imperative to clarify that Chanti is only appropriate when consumed with the sweet-breads of the Northern Italian. When sampling from citizens of more Southern regions, it is best to obtain a bottle of Grappa, to better disguise the cloying after-taste.

Something you possibly didn't know since I haven't seen it mentioned in any of your books - Willam H. Masters of Masters and Johnson was big into Egyptian occultism. He was a high priest of Sekhmet, which he wrote a book about.

Yeah, same here, another fan full of love for Bob, Bob, I read cosmic trigger when I was an impressionable lad at 17, almost 23 years ago, hehe, and you introduced me to Leary, Watts,McKenna, and damn you to hell, Alister Crowley. What a great ride it has been these past 23 years.

Your also a big inspiration for this project here

http://www.highintelligence.com

Love you so much, *you are surrounded by a network of love*, and I am afraid there is no escaping that.

oh caloo-calay, the day has come when i can send a message to bob! hello, dear friend! allow me to hail your great work for eris, bringing her message to me, and from me to others. illuminatus! was amazing, and i am just finishing up a modern equivalent, SPACE ORGASM, for my generation. i can only hope to do as well, thanks for the great example!

You are awesome. Thanks for your books and your wisdom and your sense of humor and joy. Thanks for answering nicely every time I asked you a question at a Q&A at a book signing or the movie release even though my questions didn’t always make sense.

And as someone who always felt deep inside there was more to life, thank you for showing me emphatically that indeed there is- much more than I ever expected.

Hello, Mr. Wilson. I first heard about you when I was searching some info on Licio Gelli and the P2 (during the Berlusconi years, not surprisingly, our newspapers treated him like he was a hero). Your "I in the Triangle" speech is a nice analysis of his "career". Then I got curious and read the Illuminatus!. And then Cosmic Trigger (I'm 23 years old, by the way. The exact age to read a book such as that).And I became a RAW junkie.

You really changed my perspective on the reality and your ideas have become a big part of my current Belief System. I'm still metabolizing all the information acquired... though I'm still astonished by your encylopedic knowledge (not to mention your sense of humor and your no-bullshit policy!). Thanks for raising the average intelligence of humankind and all the laughs and intuitions you gave me.

Massimo Spigafrom Italy

PS There's no italian translation for most of your books. We'll do what we can to solve this problem. It would be nice to donate a nice Cosmic Trigger translation to Licio Gelli (a copy soaked in LSD would be nicer). Maybe it'll make him understand why he's such a pile of shit.

Thanks for the review. Hope your health holds. I discovered you late in life (not too late), but well after my friends did. You were there all along. If you need anything, I can get to Santa Cruz in about 90 minutes. Will be checking on your blog periodically to see how you are. Please keep us updated as you are able. Health, finances, creative stuff -- all are important to us, your readers. We want you well and whole for as long as possible. Welcome to the blogosphere.

Great admirer of your work, particularly Cosmic Trigger 2 and Prometheus Rising. Hope that you are having more good days than bad ones. There is a movie about the 23 co-incidence matrix coming out over here soon. Think it's a murder mystery (ho-hum). Will check out the new Hannibal book. Didn't even realise there was one pending.Thanks for the recommendation. No complete sentences, just phrases; mis-spent youth reading headlines instead of articles. Cheers, steady as she goes!

After 25 plus years of reading your works I would like to thank you, and say (as you no doubt have heard a thousand times over) that you changed my life, taught me essential tools for reexamining consensus reality and my own stubborn inabilities to see the obvious. You have lived an essential life, a superb example of “mopery with intent to gawk.”

Oh, and back in the early 80s I was convinced you were the actual author of Gravity’s Rainbow, although by now saner thoughts have prevailed, and I am reasonably sure it probably wasn’t you. (it wasn’t you, right?)

When you used to come and talk at UC Santa Cruz, I always wanted to ask if it worried you that people took some of your writings so seriously at face value. Some Santa Cruz students certainly scared me, but not just because of that.

You messed in my brain, Wilson! This is- BLeUrGh... AArghh! I Find this to be mostly unnaceptable when I think about it. I am coming for you, to eat your house down until I find my ignorance and sanity, which YOU stole. You better have a good excuse, Wilson...

Try some Jasper Fforde. The Thursday next stuff is very original. Police who can police Literary Fiction. Nice language play and grammar play in his works.Plus damn fun.Been a fan of RAW since the 70's.Sadly I missed him speak in Chautauqua county NY a few years ago.You always think there will be a next time.

I hope you are what this page reveals you to be. (Moreover I hope you are who you believe your self to be. but that is insubstantial at the moment) I suppose in the end it only matters that I believe you are, and I obviously do or I would not have typed this much. I am not here to ply you with platitudes, I am sure you get enough of that. Instead I wanted to say Thank you. Your understandings have effected my course.

I became interested in Taoism early, age 15, after taking Tai chi for two years. About the same time I discovered quantum physics books. I am happy to say I still understand neither, apply them regularly, and always always I am amazed by the results. The longer I live the more aware I become of the interconnectivity of all things. Events, skills, and items that constanly encounter unify in to the same understandings. I dont know how or why, and honestly I care not to over anaylize it, that it is, is (usually) enough for me.

I have only recently become aware of your writings. Promethius rising (yes I cant spell worth a crap) is a facinating book, and I have taken to making notes begining to end as to fully absorb and process the information. I do not understand my own species, I have tried and failed time and again, you have aided me with insight I lacked. I regret to inform you that you did not fuck up my world. My brain is pretty non liniar to begin with and as such I find it difficult to draw a strait line between cause and effect. Things come at the time they are meant to and not before. I do however wish I had have read your stuff earlier. You have helped to focus some of my thinking and feeling. What you have written has helped me to turn up the night light of the soul and iluminate all the little dark spaces I could not see before. You have helped me explore and understand myself and in so doing, explore and understand the universe. I wish you well and offer my thanks once more. I hope to continue our discourse through your books for the rest of my life.

Thanks again for everything you've written and recommended (Cantos, F for Fake, Joyce, etc).

I was wondering if you had read any of the work of comic writer Alan Moore. Apparently you are a huge influence on him and it certainly comes through in his writing. If you haven't, I would recommend you use all the free time you have and pick up as much of his work as possible. The Watchmen, From Hell, A Small Killing, V For Vendetta, Lost Girls, Promethea and Brought to Light are good places to start.Yes, they are comics, but I'm sure you'd agree that one cannot deny good writing.

welome to blogger on behalf of all the staff at letaripper.blogspot. Nice to see you here Mr. Wilson. I echo the round sentiment that your borrowed, passed down, information has had on my fragile life. I really appreciate the way you packaged the info. I may have learned a lot of lessons through the catalyst of your words. Thanks

Hi Bob,when I was a kid all the adult males were WWII vets. It took me years to figure out why they were all so angry... on some days you just didn't go near them. One thing was for sure, I didn't wannna wind up like THAT.

As I slid into middle age, I kept looking round for appropriate role models... old guys that were doing the aging process well. The kind of beings that one could aspire to emulating... elders who weren't just stupid, frozen, self-important, grumpy old bastards. Pickings were slim though in the modern world.

About a year or so ago, someone gave me a copy of a dvd about you. I'd been reading (and loved) your work since the '70s, so needless to say I was interested to see where you were at these days. I was saddened to see your body was giving you a hard time but was also really inspired to note a subtle but definite difference between contemporary footage of you and the older stuff.

It seemed to my (admittedly stoned and subjective) eyes that as the testosterone inevitably dried up, you'd replaced it with something far rarer and more effective. An indefinable quality that can perhaps best be described with all kinds of mushy, nebulous concepts like spirituality, acceptance, compassion etc. The simplest term would probably be "light"... but light with strength and passion. For an aging acid-head activist like me, this was pretty inspiring stuff.

Since that time, I've encountered two other "old guys" in whom I've observed a similar glow... Albert Hoffman and an old Indian activist called Sunderlal Behuguna. It all reminds me of the music master in Hesse's The Glass bead Game who eventually BECAME the music.

So anyway Bob, all my adult life you've beatifically shattered preconceptions and helped show the way forward. Thanks for continuing to do so.Love, peace and all that,Neil

Oddly enough, I was just at the bookstore today, picking up a copy of Bucky Fuller's "Critical Path" (Which I wouldn't be after, were it not for you. Syncronicity?), when I passed by a stand of Hannibal Rising books. Now that I know it's got the R.A.W. seal of approval, I'll run back up there and grab a copy.

I also want to thank you profusely for your work. Your books have done more for me than anything else, from completely changing my worldview, to inspiring my artwork. Hell, you've even made me get my roomate to read your stuff. He works at the pentagon under the secretary of defense, and he now writes discordian and anti-authoritarian slogans in the bathroom stalls there. We live near DC, which, these days, is very fertile ground for some OM work.

so i'm with ya on 'silence of the lambs' being a great book, just stunning, so i'm gonna take ur advice and read hannibal rising. i mean, with a name like that...wait...is that REALLY the name?!? ah, must remember where i am.

i'll think for my self and you can call me a schmuck anyway.

well, this is no time for google.

i noticed that bob's interests are taoism and quantum mechanics. SO...

http://www.spaceandmotion.com/

these gentlemen claim to have solved the problem of that hideous einsteinian conundrum! well, my quantum is a bit rusty, been focusing more on the taoism.

which is why i don't have any links for that one!

hahaha!

http://www.secondattention.org/main/media.aspx

brought to you by buddha-jesus snack crackers. if its not buddha-jesus, you're eating crap!

We met once, many many years ago - at CHICON (in 1991). You spoke as part of perhaps the best panel I'll ever have the pleasure of watching - it was you, Robert Shea, Philip Jose Farmer, some random guy from Tor (I think) and Timothy Leary.

All about "High Weirdness" I seem to recall - but more to the point about a bit of everything.

Somewhere in amongst my boxes of books (moved this past January, not everything is yet out of boxes) is my collection of your books - I have all of the various Illuminati related books - and many of your others.

Thanks for your writings and creativity - and I hope these comments, this blog, and the web in general gives you much pleasure and enjoyment - and I've been amazed and gratified to see the response via BoingBoing etc to help you! Gives this atheist renewed faith in the general idea of karma.

isn't this hillarious? while i, and the rest of us, are busy gushing praise on old bob, i read this:

Robert said...

welome to blogger on behalf of all the staff at letaripper.blogspot. Nice to see you here Mr. Wilson. I echo the round sentiment that your borrowed, passed down, information has had on my fragile life. I really appreciate the way you packaged the info. I may have learned a lot of lessons through the catalyst of your words. Thanks

December 13, 2006

we love you robert! he certainly does repackage hand-me-down ideas like no one else! his literary synergy, well, its perhaps the most amazing gift he has, hidden beneath all this information he has been able to contextualize. i mean, do you REALIZE that people in my generation are reading PROMETHEUS RISING? hell, i'm a friggin genius, and i didn't even really try to understand it until the second read! but its so vital, so hillarious, so well paced, that anyone can read it. even phillip k. dick's anti-hero slacker will read it, and fein to deny its power! hell, that's a whole evolutionary period of man right there! hail robert accurate!

Recently I was at a nightclub and something really weird happened. I looked to a woman and had the strange feeling that she was of an earth sign, specifically Capricorn. I asked her... and indeed I was right.

Not believing her I asked to see some ID. As she had said before, she was born on january 18. That was weird enough. But now I discovered you were born on the exactly same date!

But... well... I bet receiving communications from Sirius must be still weirder =)

There's a lot of love for RAW on this board, and I'd like to express mine.

We met at a Bandler thing in 2001, you signed my copy of Beelzebub's Tales (which I now maintain is the only copy of that signed by you, except perhaps your own copy).

Your writings have been triggers for big shifts in my life every time I read them, although cosmic trigger sat on my shelf for years before I got around to looking at it. Once I did so, I decided to give Crowley a second (less prejudiced) look.

I have to say that I get glazed over whenever you start writing about Joyce. I just don't get him.

I am sure that your review will improve sales of the new Hannibal book, at least among the *cool* people. :)

Greetings Bob.I've been on the cosmic highway all my life, I picked up a hitch hiker, mary jane, we've been happy since.Believing I was insane for most my time on earth, by process of social rule, found David Icke... Laughed and Laughed.Been reading RAW for some short time. Enjoying every so called minute.Also,

Advertising and Name Dropping

Musicial act for Hire!Adam Weishaupt and the Rockefellers

plan protestests against Masonic Lodges, or any Masons looking for an in 'house' band,

Like the dubious "BARON CASTLEMAINE", not that I am aware of any "dubious" activities, his full name wasWilliam HANDCOCK, 1st Viscount Castlemaine,Now that is a name you could place aristoratic sodomy threats against.

His reign of 'terror' was during Irelands Peerage, (fake power swaping of english and irish 'monarchy')

For a 'Man' possibily shape shifting reptilian, ex football player, sports presenter. "Handcock" was sworn as baron with special remainder "failing heirs of his body to his brother"."His Body"!! what exactly are these Handcocks doing... and where does the name come from, a simple man who once passed a rooster to a smarter man who knew what to do with it?Or some brother loving baron...i'll let you decide..I hope I dont have to edit this, Warning: Getting Stoned can lead to rambling, 7 up up and away!

if you want check out my latest blog entry a lot of it is about you and some ideas from Prometheus Rising

thanks for the knowledge

also I thought you'd be interested in the idea of the ancestor simulator that has been proposedby Nick Bostrom Director, Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University

ABSTRACT. This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed.

I think the fact that a percent or two of the population are psychopaths explains a lot about our problems. I end the essay by proposing a constitutional amendment to give anyone in government or the upper echelons of business, etc. the Hare PCL/R test or something like it, to weed out the bad seeds. If the 109th Congress and the White House of these last few years had faced this culling, I think there woulda been a lot of empty seats.

mindfucker to mindfucker i wish you well.you've been in my thoughts lately as i picked up Illuminatus a month ago (my 3rd copy i bought w/no 2nd thought or hesitation) and then started cosmic trigger and finished.i dont see any spot on this website for donations of credit.

you are one of the few worth spending hard earned money toward.

it pains me to know you're ill.you've given us alot.shine on you crazy diamond.

Synchronicity brings me back to your door once more Mr Wilson...You introduced me to The Chapel Perilous... I thank-you...To you, all I can say is; Vitai Lampada...You truly do carry the torch of life that burns so brightly...I wish you peace and good will and so much more...

thesmirk@hotmail.co.uk

You helped put that smirk there...You helped me to understand the joke... One day I will be privy to the punch-line...

Hello from Bogotá Colombia South America ¡¡ I'm really glad you are still sharp as a knife ¡¡ I've been reading and practicing your exercises for some years now and I gotta tell you they do work ¡¡ I feel inspired by your work and the work of people as vibrating as you are ¡¡ STAY HIGH STAY TUNED AND POT BLESS YOU ¡¡ Thanks for being (in motion) ¡¡

After having my thoughts extensively re-modelled by RAW, it comes as further weirdness that you'd recommend some quality time with the young Lecter. Then again, it's probably best to have a sense of humor about All The Fucking Psychos.I did your course that featured the Saharasia book and it was a blast. As in Blast-off. Here's hoping you have a mindlessly happy moment or three today, Bob.(I've just re-discovered my stoopid blogger username. Oh dear. Oh well.)

Hello, Bob. Those creepy situations as in Hannibal really bring one face to face with the worldly "Chapel Perilous". It ain't the same thing as the archetypal mystical encounter of yore, but facing up to bad guys and gals, wars, disasters etc. are a form of bad-trip religious experience too. (Did ye-all know, *this* is "the other world", and what we consider TOW is actually the home base?)

BTW My girlfriend and I are sleeping in the same bed you did when you stayed over in '87 for the Seminar of yours I hosted in Newport News, VA. For the readers: I took Bob around the Yorktown battle field to see the trench formations etc., and it was an honor to help get the Yorktown battle scenes accurized for _The Earth Will Shake_. [We hope to see _The World Turned Upside Down_ someday.] I kept the Guinness bottle he drank from at Mike's Place the local Irish-inspired club.

Mr. Wilson, I hope it might please you to know that you've blown the reality grids of a handful of young men and women in Minnesota. We've been inspired by your Guns and Dope project to start a Minnesotan secession campaign for the 'Northstar Republic' (founded on the day the dwarf planet Eris was named) which we haven't decided is a joke disguised as a political movement, or a political movement disguised as a joke.We hope to have your blessing, and hope to have more of your work yet.

You know, I think Harris lost his way with the Lecter character, and began to believe in his own hype.

In RED DRAGON, a particular piece of almost zen-roshi-like wisdom comes from the protagonist, Will Graham.

Lecter is the consummate genius; eruidite, Sherlock-Holmes-like in his attention to detail and his prowess in deciphering hidden meaning from it... he's witty and clever, smart and quick. But he also *killed* people by a serial compulsion, a fact that the other qualities never really overmasters.

So Lecter says Graham something to the effect of "I'm smarter than you, you only caught me by accident" or somesuch, and Graham says (again-- something to the effect of), "The reason I was able to catch you is simple. The reason I caught you is because you are crazy."

And this ruffles the good doctor's feathers quite a bit, because it tears away at the elaborate mask of "gentleman genius" and reduces him from a romantic figure out of a Victorian imagination into what he is: A serial muderer.

I was impressed at the time with the awareness Harris seemed to have, and how that line seemed to chide readers who were too quick to find something darkly heroic in the figure of the captive, but dangerous predator.

Later, in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, Lecter becomes even more sympathetic, but remains a boogeyman to a large degree. But at that point, the charm is what is focused on.

By HANNIBAL, Harris has forgotten the essential truth of the character, and fallen victim (not unlike those ladies who would send love letters to Ted Bundy or Richard Ramirez) to his own creation, and completely buys his particular line of bullshit. Suddenly, Lecter is a super hero with a cliche origin straight out of Marvel Comics, and his eating of people (!!!) is reimagined as form of just punishment.

It is altogether possible that I'm just wired differently; I read DRACULA and I see that the heroes are the Van Helsings and the Harkers who endeavor to lop off the heads of the monsters.

It is interesting to me as a kind of literary pursuit to wonder about the perspective of Grendel's mother, but ultimately, I'm in Beowulf's camp, because at the end of the proverbial day, she's still a monster and a killer.